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THE LAST TEMPLAR
by Raymond Khoury
Dutton, January 2006
416 pages
$24.95
ISBN: 0525949410


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

This is the first novel for Raymond Khoury, an award-winning screenwriter with a varied background in architecture and investment banking. He writes for SPOOKS, known as MI5 in the US, and this book started as a screenplay. Khoury is an able writer, albeit flowery at times, but with the subject matter that can be expected.

The opening of the book shows the 13th century demise of the Knights Templar and the retreat of several members from their stronghold in the Holy Land. Flash to the present, where the Metropolitan Museum of Art is in the midst of opening night for a show featuring the treasures of the Vatican.

As New York's famous and wealthy arrive for the show, four horsemen appear, riding out of Central Park. They are garbed in Templar gear. The 'knights' raid the museum, stealing many of the priceless artifacts. One item in particular is stolen that gets the attention of the Vatican historians. It is a small decoder, and only a very few know what purpose it serves.

Tess Chaykin, a stunningly beautiful archaeologist, is attending the party at the Met. She is privy to a comment made by one of the raiding Templars -- "Veritas Vos Liberabit," better known as "the truth will set you free." She reports this to Sean Reilly, an FBI counter-terrorism expert assigned to the case. Both Reilly and Chaykin are drawn into the web of secrecy surrounding the treasure of the Knights Templar.

They are pitted against two evil-doers, William Vance, a retired archaeologist with one piece of the Templar puzzle, and Monsignor De Angelis, the Apostolic Nuncio, or Ambassador to the United States from the Vatican. He is the Church's murderous watchdog. Chaykin and Reilly must follow Vance into the Holy Land to save the treasure from his misguided aims. In turn, De Angelis comes along for the ride, doing all in his power to retrieve all the pieces to the puzzle and help the church cover up the truth.

Fans of THE DA VINCI CODE and Katherine Neville's THE EIGHT will certainly enjoy this book. Its thesis isn't quite as controversial as Brown's book, but Khoury presents an alternative concept that is fascinating. It is another good entry into the true secret of the Knights Templar, and the historical flashbacks are vivid and poignant.

Reviewed by J. T. Ellison, December 2005

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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